Hair at The Hollow: An evolution of style

I felt really ambitious last night and created a fabulous presentation all about my hair. It was going to include Powerpoint and everything until I realized I have absolutely no idea how to use Powerpoint or how to integrate Powerpoint into the blog. So you’ll have to settle for pictures. Point and laugh at your leisure.

I recognize this hair. This is the hair that I struggle to put up in a ponytail every morning. This is the hair that gets crusted with food and smells like apples from being spritzed with detangler. Fast forward 34 years and you see this hair on my daughter.

This particular picture was taken on my third birthday. I’m quite happy here because I am still an only child. In fifteen days that would all change.

There’s really not much you can say about the early ’80s. Big hair had yet to hit the scene and we were obviously still under the influence of the ’70s and its love of all things plaid. This would be one of many times an ill-conceived bang styling was documented on film. They look like a set of curtains drawn back to let the sun through. And wow, what a bright sun it is. Just look at that pale forehead.

There’s the volume we know and love. Oh, how I used to torture my poor hair. Perm after perm, and those bangs were curled and teased as high as they could go. I remember how my hair used to get stuck to the curling iron and break off from the heat. I had little banglets growing in for years.

I would be remiss if I didn’t address my couture-like accessories. Mood ring from Avon. Spoon ring. Swatch watch. What’s with the watches anyway? Why two? Was I due in another time zone later that day? It just looks like I made a mistake and forgot to take one off.

Just when you thought it was safe to put the curling iron away. The ’80s may have been behind us, but we still loved our hair products. In my defense, I do believe some of that volume is an optical illusion created by the shadows behind me.

This was taken when I was a freshman at the university and working at Target. I met my hubby here, though that would be a few years and many cans of hair spray later.

I lost 50 pounds in 1992 and chopped my hair off that fall. I was feeling mighty fine and started experimenting with hot rollers. I never really liked this picture before because of the wispy fly-away look of my hair, but it’s definitely better than what I’ve been seeing in the mirror lately.

A few years later we have longer hair and a few extra pounds. Nathan used to work at Blimpie and I gained a ton of weight that first summer we were together.

I was still using the hot rollers for a little curl. This is one of my favorite pictures of Nathan and me. My choice of accessories has improved and I’m even wearing makeup. And just try to tell me Nathan doesn’t look like our favorite Hogwarts student here.

Not much witty commentary to add here. For years I let my hair grow while I worked at the factory. I gradually started getting it cut and this picture shows the shortest I’d ever had it at that time. I’ve always liked this picture, too. There are so few of just the two of us together. The bigger I got, the more I avoided the camera.

This was the shortest I went with it. How much shorter could I go, really? I miss this hair. I miss how easy it was to take care of and how it always sort of looked decent. I also miss how manageable Autumn’s hair was. Shit, I miss how manageable Autumn was. She was only four months old here and very good about staying in one place and not jumping on the furniture.

This was one of the last good hair days I had before I tried the new cut. I’m not really digging what my hair has been doing lately, which is basically nothing I want it to do. I really look like a mom here. I have what Nathan calls “the soccer mom bob.” I call it divine intervention because I’ll be damned if I haven’t tried time and again to duplicate this look.

Well folks, that concludes our photo walk down memory lane today. If you liked what I did with the pictures, you can head on over to Picnik and have the same fun with your own. The Polaroid effect and the captions are all courtesy of their free service. And no, I’m not getting paid to promote them (though I should be-hint hint Picnik peeps!)